{"id":390606,"date":"2026-04-21T15:13:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/390606\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T15:13:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:13:38","slug":"sunlive-great-tauranga-duck-race-raises-thousands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/390606\/","title":{"rendered":"SunLive – Great Tauranga Duck Race raises thousands"},"content":{"rendered":"

A massive crowd descended on the Tauranga waterfront on Sunday, April 19, to enjoy the ninth running of the Great Tauranga Duck Race.<\/p>\n

Organised by the Tauranga Te Papa Rotary Club, both young and old were out enjoying the warm sunny conditions on the harbour, event organiser and Rotarian Alan Hitchcock said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe annual event again proved its worth by raising close to $37,000 for local schools and Rotary projects,\u201d Hitchcock said.<\/p>\n

\"

\nCorporate ducks waiting to race at the Tauranga waterfront. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

He said the duck race has become a highlight on Tauranga\u2019s calendar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Rotary club taking care of logistics, local schools and PTAs were able to focus on selling raffle tickets – and keep 100% of the proceeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ducklings were numbered, and a raffle ticket sold for each one.<\/p>\n

Hitchcock said this year the Life Education Trust, with Harold the Giraffe making an appearance, provided \u201ca good old Kiwi sausage sizzle\u201d as a fundraiser.<\/p>\n

\u201cC4 Coffee Cart was selling coffee to calm organisers and parents\u2019 nerves, and The Breeze Radio Station had a \u2018Duck Colouring\u2019 available to keep kids happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"

\nLaminated Beams competed in the corporate duck race with their \u2018Duckamaran\u2019. Photo\/ Supplied.<\/p>\n

Hitchcock said the event kicked off at The Strand waterfront, where ducks were released into an outgoing tide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were guided toward the finish line near the iconic Hairy Maclary statues, providing spectators with a perfect view,\u201d Hitchcock said.<\/p>\n

This year there were two corporate duck races, one motorised and the other non-powered.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 10.30am, only one creatively built and decorated duck from Trimax Mowing Systems took centre stage, racing around a course delighting the crowd with its speedy and cheeky manoeuvres and of course taking first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"

\nThe Trimax Mowing Systems duck won first place in the motorised corporate duck race. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Following the motorised corporate race, more than 60 ducks competed in the non-powered corporate race.<\/p>\n

The Big Save Furniture Duck claimed first prize, Palmers Garden Centre Bethlehem took second place and DAS Co came a close third.<\/p>\n

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\nThe non-powered corporate duck race was won by the purple Big Save Furniture duck, with Palmers Garden Centre second (middle duck) and DAS Co third (blue duck). Photo\/ Supplied.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of work that went in to detailing and dressing the ducks was impressive,\u201d Hitchcock said.<\/p>\n

Judged by event sponsor Rodney Fong, of Ray White Tauranga, the best dressed duck award went to QUBE Logistics which Hitchcock said planned to enter its duck in the motorised race next year.<\/p>\n

\"QUBE

\nQUBE Logistics won the best dressed duck competition. Photo \/ Supplied.<\/p>\n

At 11am, it was time for the main event: the duckling race.<\/p>\n

\u201c5000 numbered yellow ducks were dropped into the harbour from a McLeod crane, cheered on by the crowd,\u201d Hitchcock said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLanes were installed for the first time to keep the ducks off the seawall which assisted in guiding their way to the finish line in a slow but steady stream.\u201d<\/p>\n

The raffle tied to each duck offered serious prizes. First place went to L Standen, Duck 4172 with $1000; second place to Ollie Rooney, Duck 2915 with $500; and A Reilly, Duck 3616, won the third prize of $250.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinners have already been contacted,\u201d Hitchcock said.<\/p>\n

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\nA large crowd watched from the Tauranga waterfront as 5000 numbered yellow ducks competed in the Great Tauranga Duck Race on Sunday. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

In addition, there were spot prizes from Burnsco, Palmers Bethlehem, Classic Flyers, Fully Promoted and Ray White drawn on the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith strong support from sponsors, schools, and the community, the Rotary club is already setting its sights on 2027,\u201d Hitchcock said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great feedback from the corporate\/business sector is that they will be back for 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A massive crowd descended on the Tauranga waterfront on Sunday, April 19, to enjoy the ninth running of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-390606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}